1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: You know how the center of things are always the 2 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: most important things, you know, like in the cities, the 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: center of the city is the most important parts where 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: all the action happens, like the eye of the storm. 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: There's always something very special and significant about the center 6 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:25,800 Speaker 1: of something big. Yeah, exactly, And so the center plays 7 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: a big role in our sort of mental organization. When 8 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:30,240 Speaker 1: I walk around the city, I'm always doing it with 9 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: respect to the center. I had like an image in 10 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: my mind, where are the skyscrapers? Where am I going? 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: Everything is oriented relative to the center, right, Yeah, And 12 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting to think about the center of 13 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: the galaxy, right, Like, it's the center of the galaxy 14 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: where all the action is in our neighborhood. The center 15 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,599 Speaker 1: of the galaxy is a hot, nasty place, and uh, 16 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: it's really interesting to think about what might be there. 17 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: So there could be a super cool, awesome galactic party 18 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: in the center that we have no idea to. Somebody 19 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:03,279 Speaker 1: could be having the best dance party ever and we 20 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: weren't invited. It's happening downtown at the galaxy. I am more. 21 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,679 Speaker 1: I'm a cartoonist, and I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, 22 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: and we are the authors of the book We Have 23 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: No Idea and the host of this podcast Daniel and 24 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: Jorge explained the Universe. I hope we're the hosts because 25 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,320 Speaker 1: there's nobody else here recording with us, so it's not 26 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: us who's who's doing it. I'm just here to chat 27 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: about science. Who's hosting this thing? After all? Where are 28 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: the adults? How did they let to uh have they 29 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:48,279 Speaker 1: let to goof offs host host a podcast? Like basically, 30 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 1: I've been asking that question myself for quite a while. 31 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: Um My wife and I talked about that all the time. 32 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: We like look at each other and we're like, we're 33 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: running a household. When are the adults going to come 34 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,200 Speaker 1: in and tell us what to do? We're actually taking 35 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: all these decisions when I don't know at some point, 36 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: well from irresponsible adulthood into attempt at responsible adulthood. But anyway, well, 37 00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: I think we're in Daniel, I think we are the 38 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: people on this podcast. Well we better get hosting. Then, 39 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 1: welcome everybody to Daniel L. Jorge explain the Universe. Where 40 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: we try to take the universe and explain it to 41 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: you and make sure that it actually makes sense. Take deep, 42 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: big philosophical questions that everybody wants to know the answers 43 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: to and chat about them and make sure everybody goes 44 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: away with a deeper understanding of what's going on around 45 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 1: your planet, in your solar system, and in your galaxy. Yeah, 46 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 1: and today on the podcast, we are going to talk 47 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 1: about what is at the center of the galaxy exactly. 48 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,799 Speaker 1: We're going straight to the heart of the matter. Yeah, 49 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: we're going into the aisle storm. That's right, what matters 50 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 1: in the galaxy? What is at deceething Maelstrom, That is 51 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: the craziest, densest place in the galaxy. Yeah, what happens 52 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: when everything swirls around and what's at the center? Are 53 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 1: you imagining the galaxy is like one giant toilet you 54 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: can just throw your trash at it all ends up 55 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: in the center. Well, it looks like a swirling toilet, 56 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,240 Speaker 1: doesn't it. Yeah. I think of it more like a 57 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: like a dancing star spinning its way through the universe. 58 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: But you can go with your beautiful toilet analogy if 59 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: that helps you. You know, spinning star, toilet humor. You know, 60 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,519 Speaker 1: it's all it's all poetry in the grand scheme of 61 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: the universe. Tell me why you are comic and not 62 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: a poety again, or tell me why I'm not a physicist. 63 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear you can cross poet off 64 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: the list. Also, um, I think what you were saying 65 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: before it was really interesting about how the center is 66 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: the most important place, right, And I wonder if that's 67 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,840 Speaker 1: for physical reasons or like social and mental reasons. I mean, physically, 68 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: the center is always the densest because everything gets attracted there, right, 69 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: gravity will pull stuff together and make you have a 70 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: dense core. But I wonder if that's why we think 71 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: of the center is as important, or if there's some 72 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: other reason. Well, it's it's technically the spot that is 73 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: closest to everything else, right, Like no other spot is 74 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,120 Speaker 1: closest to everything else in the center of something. Right, 75 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:14,839 Speaker 1: m m, that's true, you know, good geometric argument. Yeah, yeah, 76 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: I mean that's why cities build around a downtown, right, 77 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: because everyone wants to stay within a certain distance of 78 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: the downtown. But in the terms, in terms of like 79 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: social planning, we've had these interesting cycles in cities, right 80 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: where like the center is the most important, and then 81 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: people spread out to the suburbs and then the center 82 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: can sometimes die. Right. We have this like urban decay, 83 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: and then of course folks come in and rebuild condos, 84 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,359 Speaker 1: and then we have urban renewal. But we have, you know, 85 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:42,720 Speaker 1: these patterns in our cities where the center is really 86 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: important is where everything is happening. And that's sort of 87 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: you know, like in l a where it's just like 88 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: a bunch of newspapers blowing around empty streets, and then 89 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: people come back and move back in. Yeah. So that's 90 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:54,599 Speaker 1: the topic of today's podcast is what is at the 91 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: center of our galaxy the Milky Way? What's going on 92 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 1: in the center of our our home, in our center, 93 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: the center of our galactic city. That's right the center 94 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,599 Speaker 1: of mass of this beautiful bunch of hundreds of billions 95 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: of stars that we call the Milky Way. And so, 96 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: as usual, before we dove into this topic, we went 97 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:15,600 Speaker 1: around town. We asked people, We said, do you know 98 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: what at the center of the galaxy? So those of 99 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: you listening think about it. Think about the picture of 100 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: the galaxy you may have seen in on TV or 101 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 1: online as this big swirling swirl of of of our 102 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,120 Speaker 1: called our Milky Way, And what do you think is 103 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,200 Speaker 1: lying there in the center of that swirl? Is it 104 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: turtles all the way down is bananas all the way 105 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: it's the turtles eating bananas. But anyways, here's here's what 106 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: people had to say. Black hole. Not a huge one, 107 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: but it's not tiny either. It's a decently sized one, 108 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: probably from maybe a red giant like the stars. Okay, cool, 109 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: probably black hole some some stars some like, but like, 110 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 1: that doesn't have to be some special thing. I guess this. 111 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: It's like a supermassive black hole. Not the biggest, but 112 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: it's super massive black hole. I think it's a great swarmhole, 113 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: big wormhole. Yes, probably nothing, but you know, it's just 114 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: a relatively dense cluster of stars, so probably black hole. 115 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: Isn't that a black hole? I thought that was the answer. 116 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: But alright, alright, so not a lot of consistent answers here, 117 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: know the center of the galaxy. PR team has some 118 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:34,160 Speaker 1: work to do in advertising the real estate opportunities down there. Yeah, 119 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 1: nobody seems to know what's there. I mean, people had 120 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,280 Speaker 1: some pretty confident guesses at least. Yeah. I fell into 121 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: a couple of categories. Some people are like, there's a 122 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: big black hole. Other people are like, well, the galaxy 123 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,919 Speaker 1: is just stars, so more stars, right, and then you 124 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: have your exotic answer. If somebody who thought that there 125 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:51,360 Speaker 1: was a wormhole the center of the galaxy and b 126 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,360 Speaker 1: I wish that were true, that would be awesome. Yeah, 127 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:56,719 Speaker 1: you mean like a toilet, like like you get to 128 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: the center and you you flush somewhere else. Do you 129 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:02,280 Speaker 1: have something you need to get rid of? Horror, I 130 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:03,680 Speaker 1: feel like this is on your mind. You need to 131 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: like something in your house, you've got, like some conjuvan 132 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: you're looking to get rid of. No. I think it'd 133 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 1: be awesome to have wormhole the center of the galaxy 134 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: from the sort of transportation point of view, Like, wouldn't 135 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: that be the perfect place for a hub, right, if 136 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: you wanted to get to the next galaxy over, just 137 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: go to the center and there's there's a wormhole that 138 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: connects you to other centers of other galaxies, and that's 139 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: how you can get to other galaxies. Right, that would 140 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: be pretty awesome. I mean, if I was designing the universe, 141 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 1: definitely would would go that way, like the downtown train 142 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: station or bus stations exactly. That's right, that's where you 143 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: can go to get to another galaxy or you know, 144 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: score some illegal stuff. Um, But the real answer is 145 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: that any of these answers could be true, right, Like, 146 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: there could be a warmhole we don't know. There could 147 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,040 Speaker 1: be a black hole that we sort of don't know, right. Um, 148 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: the real answer is that all these answers are mostly true. Yes, Um, 149 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: there definitely are a lot of stars there. Um, we 150 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,560 Speaker 1: have very strong evidence now that there is a huge 151 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: black hole at the center of the galaxy. Um, we 152 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: don't know that there's a wormhole. But you know, we 153 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: don't know that much about wormholes. We just recorded an 154 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: episode about them, and one hypothesis is that some black 155 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,440 Speaker 1: holes really are the openings to wormholes. So it could 156 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,680 Speaker 1: certainly be that the black hole the center of our 157 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:16,880 Speaker 1: galaxy is actually a wormhole that could take you to 158 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: other galaxies. You know, I think I'd probably bet it's 159 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: more likely about your toilet theory of the universe, but 160 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 1: it's certainly a possibility. Yeah, he flushing down my ideas 161 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: down the toilet, and I'm putting them where they before. 162 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:35,560 Speaker 1: But let me let's take a step back. So just 163 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:38,360 Speaker 1: to give our listeners a little recap, So we are 164 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:41,280 Speaker 1: on the planet Earth. The planet Earth is going around 165 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: the Sun in our solar system, and our solar system 166 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,320 Speaker 1: is actually one of the many billions of stars in 167 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,440 Speaker 1: the Milky Way galaxy. That's right. That's very helpful if 168 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:53,559 Speaker 1: somebody's sending you a letter from another galaxy. I hope 169 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: everybody was running that down. They're like, do this podcast 170 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:00,960 Speaker 1: apply to me? If you're listening into this podcast and 171 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:03,199 Speaker 1: you're not on Earth, then send us a note. We'd 172 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,280 Speaker 1: love to hear from you. We'd love to hear what 173 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: you think of our bad humor. That's right, interstellar podcast jokes. 174 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:13,760 Speaker 1: We'll see if they We'll see if humor translates from 175 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: here to other galaxies. Yeah, that's roughly the the where 176 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: we are in the galaxy. I think it's also helpful 177 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,280 Speaker 1: people know, like how big is the galaxy? You know, 178 00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: it's just like, you know, a few solar systems? Is this? Uh, 179 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:28,880 Speaker 1: you know most of the universe? Um, how what's the 180 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,560 Speaker 1: scale of this thing we're talking about? Yeah, I looked 181 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: it up in these notes you sent me. And the galaxy. 182 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:37,880 Speaker 1: I love the way you do research. By the way, 183 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:43,719 Speaker 1: it gets lazier and lazier as we go forward here. Um, 184 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: somebody put these numbers in front of me. I will 185 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: not vouch for them, but I will read them to 186 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 1: you as if they were true. A physicists send these 187 00:09:49,679 --> 00:09:53,240 Speaker 1: numbers to me. So I'm pretty sure. You know you've 188 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:56,160 Speaker 1: got an email from somebody who's claiming to be a physicist. 189 00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:58,240 Speaker 1: You don't even know if it's from that person. That's right, 190 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: haven't senior diploma? Daniel? I should really check before putting 191 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: myself out. You know I never had a defense. You 192 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:09,679 Speaker 1: never had a thesis defense? What do you mean? No, 193 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: no thesis defense? Wow, you were indefensible. The best thesis 194 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: defense is a good offense. You know, that's my favorite 195 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:19,400 Speaker 1: X case. So you went into your committee's offices and 196 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:24,719 Speaker 1: you just tackled them. At at UC Berkeley, where I 197 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 1: did my grad school, they do not have a thesis 198 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,960 Speaker 1: defense required, and in the physics department there is no defense. 199 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: So you just turn in your thesis and then the 200 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,080 Speaker 1: margins lady checks that the margins are correct, you know 201 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:38,320 Speaker 1: that the number of pages is right and the everything's 202 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: in the right place, and then she gives you a 203 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:44,360 Speaker 1: lollipop that says congratulations, and that's it. You have a PhD. Wow. 204 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 1: So it happens offline in the when you're writing it. Yeah, Well, 205 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,160 Speaker 1: you turn it into this window list room in the 206 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,520 Speaker 1: basement of the library, and she checks the margins personally, 207 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,199 Speaker 1: and then when she decides that your margins are acceptable, 208 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:00,760 Speaker 1: then you have a PhD. Okay, So the fact that 209 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: you have a lollipop makes you qualified to talk about 210 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:06,679 Speaker 1: the galaxy and the universe. Yeah, problem is, I don't 211 00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: know where that lollipop is anymore. So you didn't frame it. 212 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: It's not hanging in your office. Has a framed That 213 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: would be weird. So the galaxy is our galaxy. The 214 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: milk wa is about a hundred thousand light years. Why, 215 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:29,040 Speaker 1: that's right. If you shine the light in one then 216 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:31,720 Speaker 1: it would take a hundred thousand years for somebody on 217 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 1: the other side to see this light turn on. That's right, 218 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:37,600 Speaker 1: which is really big, right, but it's tiny compared to 219 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:41,839 Speaker 1: the distances between galaxies, which is much much, much larger. Right, 220 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: So you can think of, you know, the stars in 221 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 1: our galaxy as being pretty far apart. It takes light 222 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 1: years to get to another star. Um the galaxy itself 223 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:51,480 Speaker 1: you can think of as a cluster, and then it's 224 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: super far to get to the next one. Right. The 225 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: thing I love about the structure of the universe says 226 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,520 Speaker 1: that has all these hierarchies. You know, we think the 227 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 1: Sun is really far away, Well it's really close compared 228 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,440 Speaker 1: to the next star. While you think like all these 229 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:05,280 Speaker 1: stars are far apart from each other, Well they're really 230 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:08,240 Speaker 1: close to each other compared to the next galaxy. Over rights, 231 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 1: it's really fun to think about all these scales. But yeah, 232 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,840 Speaker 1: the galaxy is about a hundred light years a hundred 233 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: thousand light years across, and we are about twenty five 234 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,719 Speaker 1: thousand light years from the center. So we're about a 235 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,959 Speaker 1: quarter no wait, halfway out from the center to the 236 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:24,719 Speaker 1: edge of it. That's right. And I don't think that 237 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,599 Speaker 1: that's a coincidence because that you can't have life everywhere 238 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:31,480 Speaker 1: in the galaxy. You cannot know, you can't have life 239 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: too close to the center, right. It's sort of the 240 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,920 Speaker 1: opposite of a city, where things get more exciting as 241 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:40,079 Speaker 1: you get too closer at the nightlife gets better and better. Um, 242 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,560 Speaker 1: and a galaxy nightlife is pretty hard to come by 243 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,520 Speaker 1: in the center of the galaxy because there's so much radiation. 244 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 1: It's like basically it's deadly. It's like it is like 245 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:50,480 Speaker 1: the center of the storm. It's like the most the 246 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: craziest part of the galaxy. It's the center of the 247 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:55,480 Speaker 1: nuclear storm, and there's a whole bunch of stuff going 248 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 1: on in the center of the galaxy we don't understand. 249 00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,280 Speaker 1: What we do know is that there's a huge amount 250 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,880 Speaker 1: of deadly, really Asian coming from there. And if we 251 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: were much closer to the center of the galaxy, then 252 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:06,319 Speaker 1: life could not have formed the way we know. It 253 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: would have to be like super radiation hard life or 254 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,280 Speaker 1: something something like that. And you also don't want to 255 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:14,200 Speaker 1: be too far out away from the center of the 256 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,520 Speaker 1: galaxy because well, you need enough stuff right to to 257 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:20,640 Speaker 1: form stars and to form planets, and you want to 258 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,560 Speaker 1: have big planets going around your Solar system because that 259 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: can help you protect yourself against asteroids and stuff like that. 260 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:28,679 Speaker 1: Like a lot of people think that Jupiter has helped 261 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:30,800 Speaker 1: life form on Earth by acting as sort of like 262 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,079 Speaker 1: a linebacker, pulling in asteroids and meteors and comments that 263 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,680 Speaker 1: come into the Solar System that might have smashed into 264 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,559 Speaker 1: Earth and protecting us. So the further out you get 265 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 1: from the center of the galaxy, the less stuff there is, 266 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,840 Speaker 1: and so the fewer number of these big planets there are, 267 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: And so that's sort of like a goldilog zone. Right, 268 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:49,920 Speaker 1: there's a goldilog zone around each star, but there's also 269 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: a goldlog zone around the center of the galaxy. Wow. 270 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,080 Speaker 1: So it's lucky that our solar system is where it 271 00:13:56,160 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: is in the galaxy. It's convenient. It's convenient. Yeah. I mean, 272 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: if our star was somewhere else, we wouldn't have had life, 273 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: and we wouldn't be asking this question, okay. Or we'd 274 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: be a lot of thicker skin, maybe we look a 275 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: lot cooler. We'd be able to shoot leisure beams at 276 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: each other and all sorts of stuff. It's fun to imagine. 277 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:17,520 Speaker 1: It's fun to imagine how life might have evolved into 278 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:21,040 Speaker 1: totally different circumstances. Um. Yeah, So we're a little bit 279 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 1: away from the center. Like if the galaxy was like 280 00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:26,200 Speaker 1: a c D, we'd be we'd be halfway out in 281 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: the disc. Yeah, exactly. I think of it more like 282 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:30,480 Speaker 1: a city, you know, Like if the center of the 283 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: galaxy was Manhattan, then we're out in Connecticut somewhere, right, 284 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: Like we're out in the burbs, okay. And I read 285 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: also that it takes about two hundred and fifty million 286 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: years for our solar system to go around the galaxy. 287 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: That's right. The galaxy itself is rotating, Like everything in 288 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,120 Speaker 1: space seems to be spinning, and the galaxy itself is rotating, 289 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:53,520 Speaker 1: and that's why you see these spiral arms that come 290 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 1: out of the galaxy and they're not straight, rather sort 291 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: of dragon behind, and that's because it's rotating. And it 292 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: takes two million years for the galaxy to rotate. You 293 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:03,920 Speaker 1: could also sort of think of that as like a 294 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: galactic year, right, takes the Earth one year to go 295 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: around the Sun. We call that a year um and 296 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: so it takes the Sun two fifty million years to 297 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: go around the center of the galaxy. So that's one 298 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: galactic year. And you know, from that point of view, 299 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:20,280 Speaker 1: the universe is not that old, right, But I mean 300 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: even from the from the age of the Earth, that's 301 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,880 Speaker 1: not that much, right, because the Earth is several billion 302 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:29,880 Speaker 1: years old, and so we've gone around the galaxy a 303 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:33,080 Speaker 1: few times since the Earth was born, Yeah, only about 304 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: twenty times. Yeah, we've only done twenty times around the 305 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,760 Speaker 1: galaxy since the Earth was born. Earth being four or 306 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: five billion years old, not that many times around. So 307 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:42,680 Speaker 1: far we're pretty young as a galaxy. Yeah, So next 308 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:46,640 Speaker 1: year the Earth will be able to drink legally. That's right. 309 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:49,320 Speaker 1: All bets are off, and it's have no idea what 310 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: then it can go downtown to the center and really 311 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: get into the nightlife exactly. So that's been things really 312 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 1: start to go crazy. Yeah, and there's about a billion 313 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:04,240 Speaker 1: stars in our galaxy, so we're nothing special. A hundred billion, 314 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: so a hundred thousand million stars and we're just one 315 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: of them. And we're just one of them. And the 316 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,040 Speaker 1: other important thing to understand is that the stars in 317 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: the galaxy are not just spread out evenly. It's not 318 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:17,600 Speaker 1: like you're spreading butter over a piece of bread and 319 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:20,360 Speaker 1: you just you know, spread the stars evenly throughout the galaxy. 320 00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,200 Speaker 1: The galaxy really has a very strong gravitational pull and 321 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:26,280 Speaker 1: so it sucks stars in towards the center. And it's 322 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:28,680 Speaker 1: much much denser in the center of the galaxy than 323 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: it is out here in the suburbs. Yeah. I was 324 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: reading this also that as you get closer to the center, 325 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,720 Speaker 1: the space between stars gets smaller and smaller. That's right. 326 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: If you measure the density of stars out here where 327 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 1: we are, then there's about point two stars per cubic PARSEK. 328 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:49,000 Speaker 1: PARSEK is a unit of distance. So cubic parsk is 329 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: a unit of volume, right you. Um, I think there's 330 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:57,000 Speaker 1: just over three light years in a parsak, So a 331 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,320 Speaker 1: cubic parsk is like ten cubic light years, and um, 332 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 1: there's point two stars for ten cubic light years, so 333 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: that means, um, you know, you need like fifty cubic 334 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:09,560 Speaker 1: light years on average to have a star in it. 335 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:11,480 Speaker 1: Or then that's where we live, So we are in 336 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:14,600 Speaker 1: any stars. We're kind of out in the boonies almost. Yeah, 337 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: we're out here, you know, where you can look through 338 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,040 Speaker 1: the forest and maybe see another twinkle of your life 339 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:20,920 Speaker 1: from your neighbor. But you don't have a house right 340 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:22,760 Speaker 1: next to you. Right, the other stars are not that 341 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: close by. But if you go to the center of 342 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: the galaxy, this story is very different. Yeah. I read 343 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,280 Speaker 1: that near the center of the galaxy, it's about fifty 344 00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: times more dense in terms of stars. No, I think 345 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: it's fifty million times more dense. There's ten million stars 346 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 1: per cubic par sect. I was just off by six 347 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:45,920 Speaker 1: orders of magnazums a little end there. Fifty million times 348 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: more stars per cubic volume than than us here. Now, Yeah, exactly. 349 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:53,159 Speaker 1: Does that mean that if we're out there in the 350 00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,679 Speaker 1: middle of the galaxy and I look out into the 351 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 1: night sky, I would see fifteen million more stars and 352 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,800 Speaker 1: I would see right out. It would be a lot brighter. Yeah, 353 00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 1: And you know right now, the brightest kind of nights 354 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:06,399 Speaker 1: that we have if you look up at the stars, 355 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: if you look at the sky, is when you have 356 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:10,440 Speaker 1: a full moon, right, and that makes it pretty bright. 357 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,159 Speaker 1: You can walk around, you can see stuff. If we 358 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: were near the center of the galaxy, then the all 359 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:17,920 Speaker 1: the life from all those stars would be a two 360 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,560 Speaker 1: hundred times brighter than the light from a full moon. 361 00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:23,560 Speaker 1: So it would be like it would be you'd rarely 362 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,240 Speaker 1: have darkness, right, what would life be like? Um, if 363 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,879 Speaker 1: it evolved on a planet that that rarely had true darkness, 364 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: it would be it's sort of daylight to hold all 365 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,680 Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, exactly, exactly. All those stars would be 366 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,400 Speaker 1: there at night. You would look up and the sky 367 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 1: would just be full of dots and maybe circles, because 368 00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: it's maybe some of the suns might be close enough 369 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,040 Speaker 1: that you would see them a circle. Possibly, that's right. 370 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: And you could have all sorts of different kinds of 371 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:48,160 Speaker 1: experiences right, you could get like a sunburn at night. 372 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:51,160 Speaker 1: You could call it a star burn, I guess, because 373 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: there'd be enough radiation from those stars to light up 374 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,199 Speaker 1: your life. And even you know, toast your skin you 375 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,920 Speaker 1: have to wear a hat all the time. That's right. 376 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:02,160 Speaker 1: Sunscreen or star screen would be required. Even at nine 377 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,359 Speaker 1: screen getting ready to go to sleep, kids, put on 378 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: your star screen. So it's it's a lot crazier, I mean, 379 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: And wouldn't it just be sort of chaos because everything 380 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,359 Speaker 1: would be reacting gravitationally, You'd be pulled this way in 381 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: that way. Things would be pretty chaotic when they Yeah, 382 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:19,520 Speaker 1: I think it is pretty crazy down there. You know, 383 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: the dynamics of a three body system are really hard 384 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: to understand because there's three things tugging and pulling on 385 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,160 Speaker 1: each other. So if you get two, four, or five, six, 386 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 1: ten million things pulling on each other, it's a mess. 387 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 1: It's really hard to understand how those things operate. And 388 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,400 Speaker 1: so things are moving and wiggling and bouncing, and it's 389 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,400 Speaker 1: a pretty crazy place. It's like, you know this, it's 390 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,359 Speaker 1: like a dance club in the center of Manhattan or 391 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:45,360 Speaker 1: something for those who are of age clearly who've gone 392 00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: around the galaxy twenty one times and are invited to 393 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: the dance party at the center. You know, it's pretty 394 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,000 Speaker 1: crazy in there. Well, let's get it. Let's go deeper 395 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:58,280 Speaker 1: and let's think about let's talk about what's actually at 396 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,880 Speaker 1: the center of the gal see. But first let's take 397 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: a quick break. All right, let's talk about what's at 398 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: the actual center of the galaxy, Daniel, what's at the 399 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy? What's the center of the galaxy? 400 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:28,280 Speaker 1: Is a super massive black hole supermassive, not just massive supermassive. 401 00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: And I don't and that's not something you should bandy 402 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 1: around when you're talking to your your mother in law 403 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,920 Speaker 1: about how her dress makes her look right, But supermassive 404 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: is definitely appropriate when we're talking about this black hole 405 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,360 Speaker 1: because it weighs as much as millions and millions of stars. 406 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,280 Speaker 1: I like, I like how this is an actual technical 407 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:50,280 Speaker 1: physics physics term super massive black hole. Yeah exactly. It 408 00:20:50,359 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: was between super massive or just f and heavy man, 409 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: and they went with supermassive. Yeah, but it's crazy. So 410 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,320 Speaker 1: like if our son turned into a black hole, like 411 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:01,160 Speaker 1: if you squish did an in turn to a black hole, 412 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,239 Speaker 1: it would have the mass of one son basically, So 413 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: you're saying that these black holes at the black hole 414 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,600 Speaker 1: at the center of the galaxy has millions of suns 415 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: in it. Kind of yeah, exactly, and it could have um, 416 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: you know, smaller suns and bigger sons, but it's slurped 417 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:18,680 Speaker 1: them all together, and it's grown and it's huge. It's 418 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:21,919 Speaker 1: an it's incredible, it's a it's this really massive blob. 419 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,880 Speaker 1: And the fascinating thing is that our galaxy is not unique. 420 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: We have seen the black hole the center of our 421 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,280 Speaker 1: galaxy that we'll talk in a minute about what that 422 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,639 Speaker 1: means to see it, and we've also seen at the 423 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:35,119 Speaker 1: center of other galaxies. In fact, it seems to be 424 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: more normal than abnormal to have a black hole at 425 00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:40,920 Speaker 1: the center of the galaxy. Right, most galaxies have a 426 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,480 Speaker 1: super massive black hole in the middle, that's right. Yeah, 427 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 1: And you know that's what happens when things get dense. 428 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:48,399 Speaker 1: You crowd enough stars together and eventually you're going to 429 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 1: get enough gravity to pull these things together to create 430 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,840 Speaker 1: black holes, or one of them, you know, go supernova 431 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: and creates a black hole and then sucks in the 432 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:58,800 Speaker 1: other ones and it just grows and grows and grows, 433 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: So it's not a surprise eyes, right, it's it's it's 434 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,399 Speaker 1: sort of the best place to look for a black hole, Like, 435 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 1: where should you find one? You should find one where 436 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:07,159 Speaker 1: there's the most mass, because that's what a black hole is, 437 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,439 Speaker 1: a really high concentration of mass. Oh, that's kind of 438 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:14,479 Speaker 1: what inevitably happens when you have that much stuff together 439 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,560 Speaker 1: in the middle. Yeah, exactly. Squeeze enough stuff together and 440 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,960 Speaker 1: you're gonna get a black hole. So is that what's 441 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,119 Speaker 1: holding the galaxy together in a way? Yeah? Absolutely, I 442 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:25,960 Speaker 1: mean the black hole the center is a tiny fraction 443 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: of the mass budget of the galaxy. Right, the mass 444 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,480 Speaker 1: the galaxy has hundreds of billions of stars, and the 445 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,200 Speaker 1: black hole the center, it weighs as much as millions 446 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,679 Speaker 1: of stars. So we could do without it, right, if 447 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: you deleted it, it would change the way the galaxy rotated, 448 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: because the basic dynamics of a galaxy is that it's spinning, right, 449 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 1: although stars are orbiting around the center and they're getting 450 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: pulled in by all the gravity from all the stuff 451 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: that's closer to the center than they are, and that 452 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:55,440 Speaker 1: black hole is a chunk of it. But it's it's 453 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 1: a it's a small fraction, so we could do without it. 454 00:22:58,200 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 1: But yeah, it is playing a role in keeping the 455 00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:03,119 Speaker 1: galaxy together, but it's not a huge role. It's not 456 00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,280 Speaker 1: like the anchor of the galaxy. It's just like it's 457 00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:09,720 Speaker 1: just helping the galaxy stay together. That's right. Because also, 458 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:12,920 Speaker 1: remember most of the stuff in the galaxy that's providing 459 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: gravity is not stars or dust or gas or even 460 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,480 Speaker 1: black holes. It's dark matter. Right. There's much more dark 461 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,400 Speaker 1: matter in the galaxy than there is normal matter, five 462 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: times as much so. Also, in the center of the 463 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,119 Speaker 1: galaxy is an enormous dense blob of dark matter that 464 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,720 Speaker 1: we can't see at all. Wow. Well, we talk about 465 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 1: dark matter in another podcast episode. But let's let's focus 466 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:40,680 Speaker 1: on this black hole. How do we know there's even 467 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: a black hole there? If you can't see black holes, Yeah, 468 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,199 Speaker 1: you can't see them directly, which is really frustrating. Right, 469 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:48,359 Speaker 1: And the reason you can't see them directly is because 470 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 1: they absorb light and they don't give off any light. Right. 471 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,600 Speaker 1: It's easy to to get confused about this topic. People 472 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: think if something absorbs green light, for example, it makes 473 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,360 Speaker 1: it green. Remember if something absorbed green light, then none 474 00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 1: of the green light gets to your eye, and so 475 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,359 Speaker 1: it doesn't look green. Something only looks green if it 476 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: reflects green light. Now, black hole absorbs all light. No 477 00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:12,720 Speaker 1: light can leave the black hole, which is why it 478 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: looks black. Right, So now you're looking for something black 479 00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:19,160 Speaker 1: with black space behind it. It's pretty tricky to see 480 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,480 Speaker 1: black and black. It's camouflaged, that's right. It's perfectly camouflaged. 481 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,679 Speaker 1: And it's not that large like it's it's not like 482 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: a huge thing, and so it's it's dense and it's significant, 483 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: but you can't really see it, right. It just be 484 00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:35,160 Speaker 1: like a little tiny dog black dot in the black background. Yeah, exactly. 485 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 1: It's like a black down in the black background, which 486 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,439 Speaker 1: is really hard to spot. Um. And the best way 487 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 1: to see it is indirect and the best way to 488 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,440 Speaker 1: indirectly study it is through its gravity, because that's really 489 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: its dominant feature. Right, It's a huge source of gravitational attraction. 490 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: So we can do is we can see it the 491 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: impact of the black hole on the stars around it. 492 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,400 Speaker 1: We can look to see how they're moving. Oh, I see, 493 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:57,400 Speaker 1: so that it kind of like you can tell there's 494 00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: a son in our Solar system because all the planets 495 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:01,080 Speaker 1: are going or on in a circle. You can tell 496 00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,560 Speaker 1: there's a black hole because of the way the stars 497 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,880 Speaker 1: near the center are going in a circle. Exactly. Imagine 498 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:08,679 Speaker 1: you couldn't see the Sun for some reason, you were 499 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,400 Speaker 1: blind to the Sun, and you saw all these planets 500 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: orbiting the same location. You'd be like, what's going on? 501 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:18,200 Speaker 1: There must be something there that's providing this gravitational force, right, 502 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,639 Speaker 1: And you can calculate. You can tell exactly how much 503 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,600 Speaker 1: it weighs and where it is just based on the 504 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,720 Speaker 1: motion of the planets. So use exactly the same strategy 505 00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:28,119 Speaker 1: and then look at the stars that are near the 506 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,200 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy and ask are they orbiting something? 507 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,120 Speaker 1: Is there something there that they're moving around? And and 508 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:36,920 Speaker 1: absolutely there are And it takes a long time because 509 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 1: these stars, you know, are moving pretty quickly, but this 510 00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:41,160 Speaker 1: stuff is far away, and so to watch a star 511 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: orbit the center of the galaxy takes years or decades. 512 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,280 Speaker 1: And there's a couple of groups, one of the leading 513 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: ones is that U C. L A. And they've been 514 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,719 Speaker 1: watching these stars near the center of the galaxy and 515 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,119 Speaker 1: they are doing crazy stuff. They are swinging around a 516 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,280 Speaker 1: crazy high velocities and changing directions in a way that 517 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,679 Speaker 1: only makes sense if there's some enorm a source of 518 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,120 Speaker 1: gravity right there at the center. Um. But we don't 519 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,080 Speaker 1: see anything, right, So that's a pretty big clue. It's 520 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: like the observations on the math tells there should be 521 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,040 Speaker 1: a black hole there, But then how do you separate 522 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: that out from dark matter or how do you separate 523 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,240 Speaker 1: that out from just they're just a lot of regular 524 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,639 Speaker 1: stars clumped together, right, Well, we don't see stars there, right. 525 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,639 Speaker 1: I mean, if the stars are luminous, they're bright, and 526 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: so if there were stars there, we would see them. 527 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:27,879 Speaker 1: So we don't see any stars in that location, right, 528 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: It's it's dark um. And how do we know it's 529 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,720 Speaker 1: not dark matter? Well, there definitely is dark matter there also, um, 530 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:35,840 Speaker 1: But we have a hard time studying dark matter because 531 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: it's not as localized, tends to be more spread out. 532 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,800 Speaker 1: It's sort of a smoother blob as far as we know. 533 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:44,199 Speaker 1: But that's a whole other area of discussion. Um. What 534 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: one way that we can tell it's probably a black 535 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,280 Speaker 1: hole and not just something else is that we do 536 00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: see some radiation from it that can only come from 537 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,439 Speaker 1: a black hole. Yeah, that's consistent with coming from a 538 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,880 Speaker 1: black hole, and somebody out there is probably thinking, hold 539 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,720 Speaker 1: on his and it's a black hole. It doesn't admit 540 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:01,919 Speaker 1: any radiation black except for hawking radiation. And we're not 541 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,520 Speaker 1: talking about hawking radiation. We're not talking about the little 542 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,600 Speaker 1: wiggles that come off the edge of the black hole 543 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,920 Speaker 1: when particles decay near their edge. We can talk about 544 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,800 Speaker 1: that in another podcast. Instead, we're talking about the radiation 545 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:14,760 Speaker 1: that comes from the stuff around the black hole that's 546 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,320 Speaker 1: not yet in it, but getting squeezed and pulled into 547 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:21,160 Speaker 1: the black hole. This is something called an accretion disc. 548 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,879 Speaker 1: It's like the stuff swirling around the edge of the 549 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,400 Speaker 1: black hole that's not yet there. It's undergoing tremendous pressure. 550 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: It's being really pulled and squeezed. It's like the chaos 551 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: right before it falls down the toilet. That's right just 552 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:40,919 Speaker 1: before it gets flushed. It does a few last circles 553 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:42,960 Speaker 1: and the little bits that are about to go go 554 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: in get squeezed together, and that causes radiation. And that 555 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,639 Speaker 1: has a very specific signature that you can say, Okay, 556 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 1: that's stuff that is about to fall into a black hole. Yeah, 557 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: And it's sort of like a flickering behavior. Um, it's 558 00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,840 Speaker 1: not constant. It's something that happens sometimes, and it's exactly 559 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,320 Speaker 1: what you would expect from a black coal. And and 560 00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:03,760 Speaker 1: again you can't see this directly, right. It's really hard 561 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: to study the center of the galaxy because it's obscured 562 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: with huge clouds of gas and dust. And so these 563 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,040 Speaker 1: stars we we want to image, and this radiation is 564 00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:13,840 Speaker 1: really difficult to see. We have to use all sorts 565 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: of techniques, some combination of radio waves and infrared and 566 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 1: X ray emissions and all sorts of stuff. And so 567 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,399 Speaker 1: we we see this radiation. We also see X rays right, 568 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,960 Speaker 1: X rays and other things. Yeah. Um, But each of 569 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,560 Speaker 1: these are absorbed differently by the gas and the dust 570 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,800 Speaker 1: that are between us and the center of the galaxy, 571 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,639 Speaker 1: and and they're absorbed you know, in different wavelengths, etcetera. 572 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:37,639 Speaker 1: And so we have to have really good maps of 573 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: that dust in order to account for how much that's 574 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,080 Speaker 1: been absorbed, you know, how much of the signal are 575 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,720 Speaker 1: we missing because we're looking through a big sandstorm essentially, um. 576 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: And that's why it's really important to have different ways 577 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,479 Speaker 1: to see because infrared and radio and X ray these 578 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: are just different frequencies of light essentially, of radio of 579 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,960 Speaker 1: electromagnetic waves that are going through the galaxy, and the 580 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: different frequencies are differently affected of the stuff that's between 581 00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:04,520 Speaker 1: us and them. So having different handles is really helpful 582 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,480 Speaker 1: because you can tell um what's there and what's not there, 583 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,360 Speaker 1: and it gives you a clearer picture. It's like having 584 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: um multiple waste idea. Somebody, right, you have their picture, 585 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,320 Speaker 1: and you have to know their voice, and you have 586 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:18,719 Speaker 1: their fingerprint or something like that, and you build up 587 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,360 Speaker 1: this picture slowly because we only have fragments of each 588 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: of them. But if you had fragments of somebody's voice 589 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,600 Speaker 1: and their picture and you know what they smelled like 590 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:28,520 Speaker 1: or something that you could identify somebody even if you 591 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 1: couldn't see them clearly. Okay, So that's what's at the 592 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy. It's just a lot. It's a 593 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: party in there, a lot of stars, ten million stars 594 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,440 Speaker 1: per cubic parsect. So yeah, it's a pretty hot and 595 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: dense place. Yeah, and there's dark matter and there's super 596 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,080 Speaker 1: massive there's a super massive black hole in there also. 597 00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: That's right, and pretty soon we're hopeful that we'll get 598 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 1: an even better view of what's going on in the 599 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy because we've had this project. It's 600 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 1: called the event horizon telescope. Event horizons the name for 601 00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:59,760 Speaker 1: the edge of the black hole beyond which nothing else 602 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,239 Speaker 1: can come out of. And they're building this telescope. It's 603 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,440 Speaker 1: essentially just tying together a bunch of different telescopes on Earth. 604 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:07,680 Speaker 1: But if you do that, if you use data from 605 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: different telescopes at the same time, it makes like a 606 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 1: huge virtual telescope, one that's effectively the size of the 607 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,080 Speaker 1: distance between the telescopes. And so they're making one that's 608 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: basically the size of the Earth. And they were supposed 609 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: to have essentially a picture of the black hole, the 610 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: event horizon of the black hole. Imagine that image from Interstellar, 611 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: you know, the picture of the black hole from Interstellar 612 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,480 Speaker 1: has become sort of famous. That looks like a basically 613 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: a big black ball surrounded by kind of a halo. Yeah, 614 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:38,480 Speaker 1: to me, it looks a bit like a pizza that 615 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:44,560 Speaker 1: somebody sat on, a pizza, a pizza that somebody flushed 616 00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 1: down the toilet, exactly. It's a big flushed pizza. Anyway, 617 00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,960 Speaker 1: we're going to see pretty soon what the center of 618 00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: the galaxy actually looks like thanks to the new event 619 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,680 Speaker 1: Horizon telescope. It was the data was supposed to come out. 620 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,240 Speaker 1: The image is supposed to come out last year, but 621 00:30:57,400 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 1: they're still processing, so it could be any day that 622 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: we're gonna have this historic first image of the event 623 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,479 Speaker 1: horizon of a black hole, of the black hole, and 624 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: you will see details like in the in the movie. 625 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know what it's gonna look like. 626 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,440 Speaker 1: I don't know how what kind of resolution they have, um, 627 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:13,800 Speaker 1: but it's gonna be pretty exciting. All the all the 628 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,760 Speaker 1: black hole ologists I know are very excited about. That 629 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,120 Speaker 1: is an actual job description, absolutely, and I should mention 630 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: that in preparing for this podcast, I actually did some 631 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,840 Speaker 1: research myself and I spoke to one of my esteemed colleagues, 632 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,200 Speaker 1: Professor Aaron Barth, and he is a black holologist. He 633 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,200 Speaker 1: studies supermassive black holes and he thinks about how do 634 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:34,920 Speaker 1: you make them? And doesn't make sense? And why do 635 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: we have them? And do they work the way we expect. 636 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: There's a lot of open questions about the way black 637 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,840 Speaker 1: holes work. This even though we know they're there, we 638 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,800 Speaker 1: don't really understand why they're there and how they got 639 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:49,520 Speaker 1: to be there. Black hole ologist. You can't get over that, right, 640 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:51,880 Speaker 1: You're like, I wasn't awhere that was on the list. 641 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: I wouldn't have become a cartoonist. I would have gone 642 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,040 Speaker 1: with something better, maybe like black holy Man. That would 643 00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: have been more. I think that could be confused with 644 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:10,080 Speaker 1: something else, or or a black holistic person. Doctor. Um. Okay, So, 645 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,320 Speaker 1: so I heard there's a huge mystery surrounding black holes 646 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:15,719 Speaker 1: at the center of galaxies, and we should totally get 647 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:30,880 Speaker 1: into it. But first let's take a quick break, all right. 648 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: So there is a huge, supermassive black hole at the 649 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,160 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy, and there's a huge mystery surrounding 650 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:41,120 Speaker 1: these black holes, which is that nobody knows how they 651 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 1: came to be. They're inexplicable, that's right. They're too big, right, Um, 652 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:48,880 Speaker 1: you know, and some people like big black holes and 653 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: they cannot lie. But we don't know. We don't know 654 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: how these black holes got to be so big. And 655 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: the reason is that it's you. You might think, well, 656 00:32:57,600 --> 00:32:59,240 Speaker 1: the black hole sits at the center of the galaxy. 657 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:01,440 Speaker 1: Of course, it just a bunch of stars. It's just 658 00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: been eating a lot. Yeah, but but you know, um, 659 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:07,680 Speaker 1: it's not easy for black holes to suck in all 660 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,120 Speaker 1: those stars because the stars are orbiting, right the same 661 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,040 Speaker 1: reason that the Earth doesn't just like fall into the 662 00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:14,440 Speaker 1: Sun and make the Sun a tiny bit bigger. Those 663 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,440 Speaker 1: stars are orbiting the black hole and their angular momentum 664 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,400 Speaker 1: keeps them from falling in, and so according to our models, 665 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: the black holes should not be that big. They're like 666 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,880 Speaker 1: a thousand times bigger than they should be if we understand, 667 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: you know, how they started and how they grew. So 668 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:30,880 Speaker 1: the fact that they're so big is kind of awesome, 669 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:34,320 Speaker 1: but also a big mystery. They're mysteriously big, like we 670 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:36,360 Speaker 1: don't know where all the food came from. We don't 671 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,600 Speaker 1: know how they got that big. Yeah, we don't know 672 00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:40,400 Speaker 1: what are they sucking in and where did it come 673 00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: from and who's been feeding them? And people have crazy ideas, 674 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,200 Speaker 1: you know, they think maybe there was a time in 675 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,080 Speaker 1: the universe when galaxies were colliding a lot more than 676 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: they are now, and so it could be that, you know, 677 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: a bunch of galaxies crammed together, and what we have 678 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:54,840 Speaker 1: at the center of our galaxy is basically the black 679 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: holes of a bunch of galaxies all merged together. Or 680 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,960 Speaker 1: you know, maybe when that merger happens the black holes 681 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,760 Speaker 1: just like goggles up a bunch of stars because they 682 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,400 Speaker 1: come into its path. There's a lot of fun, really 683 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,719 Speaker 1: fun but really crazy dramatic ideas. And the amazing thing 684 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: to me is that these these dramas are incredible, right, 685 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:16,480 Speaker 1: black holes eating stars, But they also happened really slowly, 686 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: you know, like over millions and billions of years. You 687 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,200 Speaker 1: see these galaxies colliding and merging and things getting sucked up. 688 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,280 Speaker 1: You know, I love the idea of huge violence happening 689 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: really slowly. Well it's slowed for you, um, but you 690 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 1: know our lives would be slow to an ant right 691 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:34,640 Speaker 1: or to a microbe. Yeah, exactly. And on the Microbe 692 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,160 Speaker 1: Universe podcast they probably talk about that all the time, 693 00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:44,360 Speaker 1: Daniels slowly the disaster that is this podcast or it's happening. 694 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:54,839 Speaker 1: Why is this podcast so long? Maybe the black hole 695 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 1: in our galaxy, the one at the center of the 696 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:00,839 Speaker 1: supermassive one, came from two galaxies arashing into each other 697 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:03,719 Speaker 1: and there are black holes joining into one. Or it 698 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: could be that we just don't understand the process that 699 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,560 Speaker 1: starts a black hole, and then maybe they started off 700 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:11,120 Speaker 1: much bigger and uh, and that explains why they are 701 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,799 Speaker 1: larger than than we understood. There's just a lot of 702 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,560 Speaker 1: basic questions, you know. And every time we do this 703 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,440 Speaker 1: in science, we see something interesting, then we ask can 704 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,120 Speaker 1: we explain it? Do our models predict exactly what we're 705 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:23,479 Speaker 1: gonna see? It's not just like, oh, we figured there'd 706 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:25,520 Speaker 1: be a black hole, Yeah there is. Now we come 707 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,879 Speaker 1: up with like detailed quantitative models. Let's say how big 708 00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,239 Speaker 1: should it be? Or is our black hole unusual? And 709 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:32,759 Speaker 1: let's look at all the other black holes and we 710 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:35,239 Speaker 1: try to really understand the details of the process. This 711 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: is how we we we find problems, and this is 712 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:40,400 Speaker 1: how we crack them. So it's really all in getting 713 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,040 Speaker 1: into these details. I have a question. Can a black 714 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:49,239 Speaker 1: hole sucking dark matter? Absolutely? Yeah? Nothing preventing that. Yeah, absolutely. 715 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,919 Speaker 1: I mean dark matter feels gravity, right, and so it's 716 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,279 Speaker 1: going to get pulled by by the black hole, and 717 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 1: it's probably there could be dark There could be black 718 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 1: holes made mostly of dark matter, right, dark holes or 719 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 1: whatever you want to call dark black holes. Now, dark 720 00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,080 Speaker 1: matter is definitely not immune from the gravitational poll of 721 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,200 Speaker 1: a black hole. Well, it's amazing to think we have 722 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:12,840 Speaker 1: this huge mystery in the center of our galaxy. A 723 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:16,719 Speaker 1: huge hole in our knowledge about the universe is there 724 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,640 Speaker 1: literally in figuratively, right, that's right. It's at the center 725 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,000 Speaker 1: of everything we we live around. It's we've been orbiting 726 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,840 Speaker 1: it for billions of years and still don't understand it. 727 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: And the list of mysteries of the galactic center is huge. 728 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:30,240 Speaker 1: You know, we don't understand a lot of the radiation 729 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:32,399 Speaker 1: that's coming from there. We think there might be weird 730 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:35,879 Speaker 1: stuff happening that we don't understand, so strange stars being made, 731 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,040 Speaker 1: all sorts of other kind of processes. You know. Another 732 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,080 Speaker 1: big mystery is like, where do all the high energy 733 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,759 Speaker 1: cosmic rays come from? These particles from space that have 734 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:47,040 Speaker 1: so much energy we can't explain it. Yeah, we did 735 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,120 Speaker 1: a podcast episode on that, right, Yeah. And one possibility 736 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 1: is maybe they're coming from centers of galaxies with these 737 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,879 Speaker 1: enormous pressures and huge gravitational forces. So far, it doesn't 738 00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,120 Speaker 1: look like it because we don't have a whole lot 739 00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,479 Speaker 1: of examples of these energy particles, but we can't point 740 00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,000 Speaker 1: them all back to the centers of galaxies. But we 741 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,239 Speaker 1: don't know, and so there's a there's a lot of 742 00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:08,720 Speaker 1: stuff to be discovered it's a really really rich source 743 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:12,640 Speaker 1: of um astronomical mystery. Yeah, it really makes me think 744 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,960 Speaker 1: how dynamics things still are. You know, things seem pretty 745 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,839 Speaker 1: chill right now in our solar system, but we're really 746 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,640 Speaker 1: part of this larger history of this crazy, giant, swirling 747 00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,920 Speaker 1: active disaster crash zone toilet. That was the alternate name 748 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,240 Speaker 1: for the for the galaxy we considered instead of Milky 749 00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:35,319 Speaker 1: Way detective crash disaster toilet, but it didn't quite roll 750 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:37,239 Speaker 1: off the tongue the same way. I didn't think it 751 00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:39,799 Speaker 1: was gonna sell t shirts, No, but you're absolutely right. 752 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 1: And remember, the galaxy is young. We've only been around 753 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 1: for twenty spins of the Galaxy UM, and so in 754 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,680 Speaker 1: terms of galactic years, the whole universe isn't even not 755 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,680 Speaker 1: much longer. It's like, you know, sixty or seventy galactic 756 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,759 Speaker 1: years old. So things are just getting started. So in 757 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,080 Speaker 1: that party is just getting started. The party, yeah, the 758 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:03,400 Speaker 1: the downtown party, that's right. But it's interesting to think 759 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,520 Speaker 1: that inside of that galactic center are clues about how 760 00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:10,520 Speaker 1: the galaxy formed and how this whole universe got put 761 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,200 Speaker 1: together right, exactly, absolutely, and that's what makes it so exciting. 762 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,239 Speaker 1: And you know, that's the process of science, Like let's 763 00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:18,440 Speaker 1: look around and see what we don't understand, and then 764 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:20,960 Speaker 1: ask basic questions about it and try to figure it out, 765 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,040 Speaker 1: and along the way we come up with better and 766 00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,520 Speaker 1: better and more accurate models of what's going on. And 767 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:27,680 Speaker 1: that's how we figured out like the dark matter is 768 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:30,880 Speaker 1: a thing, and that's how we discovered black holes and 769 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,560 Speaker 1: all the A lot of the really great transformative discoveries 770 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,920 Speaker 1: of the modern age have come from asking simple, basic 771 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,040 Speaker 1: questions about stuff, not flushing them down the toilet right away, 772 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,880 Speaker 1: and the podcast partner says, though, that's right, or asking 773 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:47,480 Speaker 1: questions about how to flush things down the toilet, like 774 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:49,680 Speaker 1: can I flush a black hole down the toilet? Yes? 775 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:54,120 Speaker 1: Or no? I'll need the dark matter please, that's right. 776 00:38:56,680 --> 00:39:00,680 Speaker 1: That was such an obvious joke. Nice job. Well, thank 777 00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,080 Speaker 1: you for joining us. That's the mystery at the center 778 00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:06,000 Speaker 1: of the galaxy. That's right. So now you know what 779 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,560 Speaker 1: is the center the hopping party at the center of 780 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:12,839 Speaker 1: the galaxy, But we don't recommend you spend any time there. 781 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:15,280 Speaker 1: Toys in two fifty million years when the Earth turns 782 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: twenty one. That's right. Thanks for listening. See you next. Time. 783 00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 1: If you still have a question after listening to all 784 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:33,719 Speaker 1: these explanations, please drop us a line. We'd love to 785 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,160 Speaker 1: hear from you. You can find us at Facebook, Twitter, 786 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,920 Speaker 1: and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge That's one Word, or 787 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: email us at Feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com.